The mission of UIC Retail Operations is to support the University academic mission by providing students with competitively priced resource materials customized for the UIC educational experience as directed by UIC faculty and staff. Retail Operations provides a wide variety of goods and services for the convenience of the greater UIC community, enhancing the campus experience with exemplary customer service, and demonstrated fiscal and social responsibility.

Textbook Affordability Program at the UIC Bookstore

With the increasing perception by college students that textbooks are too expensive, UIC Bookstores continue to examine a number of alternatives for making textbooks more affordable for our student population.

Here are some of the measures the UIC Bookstore is taking to make textbooks affordable for students:

1. Lower Margins

The UIC Bookstore offers textbooks at approximately 2% less than the national average. The UIC Bookstore textbook margins are well below the national average resulting in lower priced textbooks for UIC students.

2. Low Price Guarantee

“Buy your NEW textbooks at The UIC Bookstore. If within one week of purchase you find the same book (same ISBN and edition) available in stock and in new condition at any other UIC area bookstore at a lower price, bring us your UIC receipt. After verifying the other store’s price and availability we will refund DOUBLE the difference.” The UIC Bookstore will then make sure that the book price is changed so that the rest of the students will be ensured of the lowest possible price.

The UIC Bookstore provides economic savings directly to UIC students by offering low pricing and sponsoring an aggressive buyback program. Students are offered up to 50% of the new price for used titles adopted for the following semester, thus providing affordable used books for future classes.

4. Vendor Partnerships

The UIC Bookstore has established key vendor partnerships that result in rebates and additional discounts resulting in savings that are passed on to UIC students via lower prices.

5. Support for Campus Auxiliary Services

After expenses, specifically salaries and operational cost to support the Bookstores, any additional revenue goes back to the University to support student programs.

6. Faculty Education

There are a number of ways that our Faculty can help the UIC Bookstore help UIC students;

a. Ordering books on time provides the Bookstore the opportunity to find more used books. This gives the bookstore the opportunity to search out the largest supply of used textbooks from all possible sources.